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Monday, August 27, 2012

When we
were growing up, we were always embroiled in sibling rivalry as you would
expect of a small homestead accommodating a total of 5 energetic boys and one
girl. On several occasions, we would fight and in an attempt to run away and
hide, we would realize the only space available was within the house.

And the
house was a little small room that was self contained, hosting all possible
functions of a family home ranging from the kitchen, living room, bedrooms for
each person who considered the place a home. Running around this space in a bid
to avoid being caught by the angry elder brother for a beating was a tough
calling. We would run yes, but only within the box.

This
scenario comes to mind when I observe the goings on in many places of work. The
most obvious is the experience of staff running away from their bosses. In
cases when bosses and staff conflict, there is always the tendency for the
staff to want to be as far as possible from the respective boss. They do all
within their means to ensure their eyes do not meet and that their paths don’t
cross.

The
workplace is an interesting environment. Staff and management are constantly in
conflict in the process of undertaking their daily tasks. The conflicts range
from professional and task related disagreements to highly personalized
conflicts. You will once in a while hear staff talking about their boss who
never appreciates anything good they do and only capitalizes on their
weaknesses.

On the other hand, you will hear of bosses lamenting of a certain
staff who does not seem to toe the line. They would be found discussing about a
staff who does not seem to appreciate their leadership and is ever demanding
for more space than what they are provided.

At some
moments, these conflicts are open and clear for all to see. The verbal and non
verbal messages are legible and other staff realize that certain persons around
them are not in talking terms. During this tense season, the conflicting
parties tend to pool others around them with the aim of consolidating support
and making the other person appear as the bad one. As this happens, the workplace
is split into camps, with perceptions and attitudes built one against the
other. Schisms appear and people start running away from each other.

When
the attitudes are ripe and well cooked, staff start making moves against each
other. It seems like everyone starts to suspect the other as no one knows who
initiated the hate campaign and none seems to trust the other anymore. Everyone
gets thrown into a race, a race against each other yet within the same office
space.

You don’t want to be seen laughing with so and so since it may be
interpreted to indicate you are buddies and may become an enemy of the rest.
The use of words changes and caution becomes the utmost concern. You never know
who is in which camp hence must be clear on who you talk to and on what issues.

Eventually,
you find the workplace embroiled in the game of mystery friend and assassin. In
this game, within the space provided, each person considers another as a friend
and another as a foe. You never disclose who plays which role. When requested
to move towards your friend and as far away from your foe, you notice weird
movements. Whoever you may have picked as your friend could have picked on you
as a foe hence the closer you tend to move towards them, the further they want
to move away from you. A crisis.

The
only way out of this circus is open communication. Talk to each other and
eliminate suspicion. Build trust and address conflicts as they arise. Do not
propagate discord against each other otherwise; you will initiate a silent run,
a run away from each other, among the staff. And remember, you have only one
space to run around. You better run in peace. Run towards each other, not in
conflict and the run will be enjoyable within the box.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

When she walked into the room, she could breathe
the heavy air. Though she could not exactly tell what the issue was, Peninah
was sure that it was not business as usual. The staff looked somber and in deep
thought. The guard at the main gate had reluctantly opened the gate for her but
she had considered it as part of the Monday morning blues.

She had taken no
offence. But by the time she sat on her office couch, she knew she needed to do
something, something she could not finger. And what needed to be done had to be
done fast. It seemed everyone in the office had been waiting for her to walk in
so as to provide leadership in the case.

Over the past weekend, one of the longest
serving staff in the company, Nicholas, had been involved in a tragic road
accident while visiting his relatives up country. As a result, he had lost his
wife and daughter and was now fighting for his life at the District Hospital.
Word had not reached any of the workmates until that Monday morning when a
friend had called the office after locating a business card in his wallet. This
was tough. It was tragic and no one could behave as though nothing had
happened. A dark cloud hang over the office and leadership was needed.
Leadership from the boss.

As Peninah listened to the horror
incident from the head of HR, her head sunk. Her spirit rose and went for the
heart of the injured staff. She quickly logged off her computer and requested
for a quick staff meeting. In a short while, the entire staff team sat in the
board room waiting to hear what the CEO had to say. Unity of purpose seemed to hold
all staff together. It was clear.

Everyone needed to be involved in whichever
way to support the injured colleague. Quick resources were raised and a team dispatched
to visit the injured staff in hospital and later on visit his home. Two of the
staff’s sons had just closed school to the news of the demise of their mother
and sister and hospitalization of the father. They all needed help. Quick help.

After a month in hospital, Nicholas was
discharged and spent a further one week at home before reporting back to work.
As he walked out of his house that Tuesday morning, he could feel the warmth
attracting him to the office. He just wanted to get to work and shake the hands
of every staff. They had pulled him out of death. Almost literally. He knew he
owed them thanks. They had held him up.

This story could just be a representation
of the many challenges staff go through either at work or in their private
lives. The support mechanisms available for them mean a lot in terms of
enhancing team feeling among staff. The support goes far beyond the team
building events the organization may have organized in terms of building real
team bonds. It separates the wheat from the chaff in creating a sense of being
at the workplace. The actions get so loud that you can barely hear the words
emphasizing team work.

When staff hold each other up, the
support goes a long way into creating lasting bonds among staff and management.
At those points of need, there is no compartmentalization of the office space.
All persons get down to earth to help the situation and no one carries the
glory at the end of it. ‘We all did it’
becomes the new slogan as the feeling of comradeship sets in. At this point,
the company is ready for a rebirth, the recreation of the fibre that holds it
together. A linking up of the human side of the company.

Monday, August 13, 2012

It is
true. The higher you go the cooler it becomes. The same is true at the work
place. As people go up the career ladder, they tend to lose more of their
former close friends in the same company. The moment they become heads of
departments and supervisors, they soon realise the relationship between them
and the rest of the staff changes.They
are no longer referred to as employees. They earn a new title. They are now
boss. Supervisor. Manager. The employer.

After
some time, they start noticing a certain trend among the staff that worry them.
In the rare opportunities when staff get the energy and the strength to
approach them, there is one running theme. Boss, we need a raise. Boss we want
you to consider this and that. It seems like the employees rehearse this
request phrase as each of them seems to use the same script when in discussion
with the boss.

As the
discussion progresses, it dawns on the boss that the employees imagine the
bosses are the main stumbling blocks between them and their good times at the
office. It is now clear that the employees feel like the bosses are out of
touch with their feelings. This is a disturbing position for the bosses to be
in. They wish the employees know just a few things about them and their
experiences. Pauline, a senior executive in a blue chip NGO shares her wishes.

I wish
employees knew how frail I sometimes get, she reflects. In the mind of the
employees, the bosses are the strongest among all the staff in the company. It
is a perception among the employees that the bosses never suffer from faint
hearts. They are strong and have huge hearts to easily carry all the burdens of
the staff. As much as this could be true and is a key characteristic of an
effective leader, the fact is that there are times when the bosses are at their
lowest ebbs. There are times when Pauline has had to hide in the bathrooms to
cry as she reflects on the experiences with some of the staff.

The
second perception is that when the company is at risk of closure, the boss is
never concerned. Some staff imagine that the boss’s job is always secure and
all the boss does is to look at the organizational chart and decide who among
the staff to relieve of their duties. Nothing is further from the truth. When
Pauline reflects on a recent experience when her organization suffered great
shocks after key donors terminated their support to one of the projects, she
grows downcast. She had received a letter from the board chairman requesting
her to show cause why she should not be replaced with a more outgoing manager.

Despite
all her efforts to retain the donors, a decision had already been made and
hence had to manage the crisis. As she approached the staff meeting room one
Friday afternoon, she knew the staff considered her as the failure and cursed
her in their hearts. She walked slowly hoping to get the right words. Her heart
was heavy as she weighed the implications of the donor exit. Staff had to lose
jobs within a month and she knew this was a big blow to her future career
prospects. She was hurting yet none of the staff seemed to realize how she had spent
sleepless nights looking for extra resources to retain the team.

Finally,
bosses wished the employees knew the push for their interest in improved
performance among the staff. Have you ever heard staff talking about performance
targets and the thread of thought to the effect that bosses only wish to load
it on the staff yet life would be better off without the targets?

What
employees miss is the realization that targets set for staff are usually a reflection
of the agreed upon organizational targets set by the board of directors. Their
boss receives clear targets that must be attained through the various
departments.

So, when you see your boss insist on targets, appreciate their
efforts as they are as accountable just as you are to their bosses. Bosses have
bosses and are equally are under pressure to perform.

As
Liliana sat one evening sipping her glass of fresh juice, she contemplated a
possible resignation due to the sustained challenges at the top and wondered
whether she had made the right decision to join senior management at the
company. She wondered whether it is ever possible to be an effective senior
manager and at the same time be friends with the staff you manage.

Listening
to people talk about their bosses at work, you would be tempted to imagine the
persons they are talking about are machines or systems that have no human blood
flowing through their veins. We are fond of saying all manner of things about
our bosses in a way that portrays them as inhumane and persons with no
feelings. And as you read this article, what words would you use to describe
your boss?

When we
think about our bosses, there are times when we imagine them as persons out to
no good. We think about them as people determined to make our lives more
challenging than it already is and hence consider them as part of our problems
in life. The thought of the boss elicits feelings of despair and
disillusionment as we at times feel like our lives would have been better off
were it not for the bosses. There are actually times when we imagine life would
have been better without the bosses. However, on situations when we have been
our own bosses, we have realized that bossing over people, including ourselves,
is never a walk in the park.

Liliana
has been a senior manager at a local bank over the last 15 years. Over this
period, she indicates that she has had to endure the frustration of
boss-branding from staff to an extent that she started almost feeling inhumane.
There are instances when the staff through the local associations had sent an
incriminating letter to the directors suggesting that she had lost touch with
the staff at the branch and had demanded for her removal or risk systematic
poor results.

It
later came to be realized that the issue had revolved around her refusal to
allow some staff to internally agree on making informal switches on their
working hours. Liliana had considered sticking to the bank policies and this
did not augur well with the staff. A hate campaign had hence started that
targeted her, both as a person and as the boss. Along the way, the staff
started speaking in low tones whenever she got to the banking hall and this was
truly intimidating. She felt isolated from the rest of the staff. This was
suicidal.

How
would she manage the staff who did not want to talk to her? She had her strong
feelings on what needed to be done to remedy the situation yet no one seemed to
open their space for her to explain herself. The rest of the staff were
convinced she was out to box them and deter their freedom while she considered
the best interests of both the staff and the company.

The disconnect
seems to arise from the perception among staff that bosses are never concerned
about the welfare of the junior staff. There is a general rumor that all that
employers are concerned about are the bottom lines and that they do all they
can to maximize on the profit and reduce on the cost even if that means
stepping on the toes of the workers.

It is
important to note that employers are also human. They are people with families,
with social lives and are equally maneuvering through life with the rising cost
of living. Bosses get affected when interest rates are raised arbitrarily and
are hence aware of the impact on the staff motivation and in most cases do all
they can to help mitigate the effects on the staff. All they yearn for in most
cases is a listening ear and a team of staff who would be interested in being
part of the solution to the problems they raise to the senior management.